London in particular has served as the locus for many of these novels, but rarely has one been so well presented as this. And I say "I think" because it wasn't after having finished the book and after having fallen asleep with the last chapter on my mind that I realised how affected I was by Lev's story. Desperately, he takes out an English twenty-pound note and examines the picture of the Queen on one side and a man with a dark, drooping moustache on the other, probably a historical figure. Although some of this characters are a little bit stereotypical - the second lesson is how friendships with people from different backgrounds can be formed.

The Road Home by Rose Tremain | Book Club Discussion The Road Home by Rose Tremain | Book Club Discussion

He also remembers sleeping on the hard linoleum floor next to his wife Marina’s hospital bed, when she was dying. The metaphor of co-travellers being like a married couple reflects the character’s attempt to find some comfort in companionship during the difficult journey of migration, the imagined intimacy, albeit temporary, providing momentary warmth and comfort as they embark upon the journey to a new but shared destination. The plot is fairly straightforward: Lev has recently emigrated from an unnamed Eastern European country to find work in London.

In 2009, she donated the short story The Jester of Astapovo to Oxfam's " Ox-Tales" project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. There are irritating little mistakes of fact that Rose Tremain shouldn't make: London underground trains running on Christmas Day; a man's mobile is stolen, he gets another and is instantly rung on it, even though of course the sim card will have remained in the stolen phone so no one would know his new number. A friendly Arab man—himself an immigrant—offers him a job delivering leaflets, but it pays so little that Lev cannot even afford to rent a bed in a shared room. P.406 "In Lev's kitchen - his adored domain - the gas flames burned an obedient blue, leaped to yellow on sudden, triumphant command; the salamanders glowed and shimmered to violent vulcan red. Sophie also introduces Lev to several figures from the London art world, including a Damien-Hirst-like artist and a satirical playwright.

Rose Tremain - Wikipedia Rose Tremain - Wikipedia

In “The Road Home,” she lets Lev in on her secret: “Don’t think about Auror down there in the darkness. The woman is named Lydia, and she is going to appear for interviews in England for the job of translator. So it is a relief to see the sympathetic depiction of migrant workers contained in Rose Tremain’s latest novel The Road Home, which has just been released in paperback.There is so much in the media about immigration these days, sadly, much of it giving a very negative view, and quoting soulless numbers and statistics, but how often do we get to meet the people who make up those numbers? She held the 'jumper' up to her chest, to see how much further she had to go before casting off for the shoulder seam.